Pyxis (Container for Personal Objects)
580-570 BCE
Medium
terracotta, black-figure
Dimensions
14 × 15 × 15 cm (5 1/2 × 5 7/8 × 5 7/8 in.)
Classification
earthenware
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40879
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Located on the narrow isthmus that joins the Greek mainland and the Peloponnese, with natural harbors facing east and west, Corinth was the major port of trade in Greece for most of the Archaic period (700–480BC). Producers exported scented oil around the Mediterranean in terra-cotta containers that survive today in the thousands. Around the time that this jar was made, Egypt’s king, Amasis (r. 570–526 B.C.), in the interest of trade, gave the Greeks the Egyptian port city of Naucratis, where G...